The Social Organisation in North-East India in Buddha's Time c14.171

c14.171

More frequently than the *Kassakabrāhmaṇa* we meet in the Jātakas with the figure of the rich Brāhmaṇa (*brāhmaṇo aḍḍho mahaddhano*, IV. 15; *brāhmaṇo aḍḍho mahaddhano mahābhogo*. IV. 22; *dve brāhmaṇā asītikoṭidhanavibhavā*. IV. 28), whose wealth is given as 800 millions (II. 272; III. 39; IV. 28, 237). The *mahāsālakulas* mentioned in the Jātakas, that is, families of great wealth and influence, are all Brāhmaṇas (II. 272; IV. 237, 325; V. 227). About the manner in which such great wealth arose and whether it was employed in business or money transactions, our sources say nothing; the narrator mentions the immense wealth of the Brāhmaṇas as a rule only to show in its proper light their great renunciation of worldly goods or their boundless liberality. Still it seems to me we can suppose that by these rich Brāhmaṇas big landholders or princely merchants are to be understood; for through presents alone such enormous riches could hardly have accumulated in Brāhmaṇa families; it is also not probable that these could be amassed without recourse to money transactions carried on from generation to generation, as narrated in the Kaṇha Jātaka (IV. 7).